And This Is Who They Listen To

Scott Lively May Trump Beck As Prince Of Fools

But The Christian Right Still Insists On Quackery

People listen to Glenn Beck. Yes, they do. And because they do, the rest of the country has to suffer the slings and arrows of unreasoned hatred fueled by an insipid lust for power. But who does Glenn Beck listen to? Does he listen to anyone? Do the writings of some pseudo-historian drive Beck's history and blackboard shenanigans?  

They do.

Beck introduced David Barton as the "historian" who is "The Library of Congress In Shoes." Unfortunately, those shoes only hold a "career upon his claim that United States government was founded on Biblical precepts."

wikipedia:

Barton is a collector of early American documents, and his official biography describes him as "an expert in historical and constitutional issues." Barton holds no formal credentials in history or law, and critics dispute the accuracy and integrity of his assertions about history, accusing him of practicing misleading historical revisionism and "pseudoscholarship."

Barton's claim that ours is a Christian Nation is specious at best. His discourses on slavery dodge the bullet when he skirts around the subject by citing his friend, Stephen McDowell, whose close relationship with R.J. Rushdoony (THE Reconstructionist) shines through in his explanation: America's slavery was not BIBLICAL Slavery! In other words, "Southern Slavery Wrong -  Biblical slavery Right!"

Reconstructionism has long been a taboo subject for American Christians because it advocates "reconstructing" government to conform strictly to Biblical law. For years, pastors, churches and denominations were quick to disassociate themselves from the Chalcedon Foundation, founded by Rushdoony. But today, unreason has taken hold and Reconstructionism is hiding in plain sight: in the teachings of people like David Barton.

Barton is a fraud. Beck knows it. Groups like Tony Perkins' Family Research Council know it. But neither of them care, because they need people like Barton. 

FRC and Scott Lively

It took the "kill the gays bill" in  Uganda to bring Scott Lively to the forefront of influential "historians." His book, The Pink Swastika, was debunked by legitimate historians condescending to talk about such idiocies: Hitler was gay, he surrounded himself with gay men because they had no conscience and were the most vicious, therefore Nazism was founded by gays. Lively brought forth his precepts in Kampala, Uganda last year, along with the principle that the criminalization of homosexuality was the best way to eradicate it:

[from a statement made in 2007 in a letter to Russia]

However, homosexuality is destructive to individuals and to society and it should never [be] publicly promoted. The easiest way to discourage gay pride parades and other homosexual advocacy is to make such activity illegal in the interest of public health and morality. 

Wikipedia:

Scott holds a Juris Doctor, magna cum laude, from Trinity Law School, and a Certificate in Human Rights from the International Institute of Human Rights.

Whoa! Such credentials! But with a little investigation comes a great big disappointment. For one, Trinity Law School has had an abysmal rate of its students passing the bar (only 22% pass the first time and some almuni have wound up taking it as many as six times - without success). Nowhere is Lively's bios does it say that he was a ceritifed attorney. For another thing, a Certificate in Human Rights is rather dubious, considering that the IIHR's founder was key in drafting the Declaration of Human Rights:

Article 9:

No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.     

The proposed "kill the gays bill" of Uganda is nothing if not arbitrary. And one more thing about Mr. Lively's credentials, his letters are all signed with "J.D., Th.D." but no other documents reference a doctorate in theology or any accredited institution that would have awarded him one - even an honorary one. Additionally, a doctorate in theology is not the same as a Master or Doctor of Divinity which Lively would have to use in labeling himself as "pastor."  

And his other books, Seven Steps to Recruit-Proof Your Child: A Parent's Guide to Protecting Children from Homosexuality and the "Gay" Movement (1998) and Why and How to Defeat the "Gay" Movement (2000) cite no professional expertise, Lively being neither a professional child psychologist nor a psychologist specializing in gender "disorders." 

Lively is a silly fraud. But Family Research Council will support Lively, distributing his works as manna from heaven - especially in Uganda.

O.K, so I've mentioned Paul Cameron and Joseph Nicolosi before,  but it's worth repeating that Family Research Council depends heavily on the writings of these two for the "research" in its name. Along with Perkins and Lively, I've called them the Four Horsemen of the Homosexual Agenda.

Let's face it: it's so easy  Jon Daily to poke fun at the idiocies of someone like Lively, but the likes of the Christian Right - aka Tony Perkins, James Dobson and Rick Warren - HAVE to listen and repeat. 

The only other choice they have is to listen to their consciences.

No, that would never do.

 

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The Vampires Have Their Mistress Back ...

And We'll Embrace Humanity More

The infamous author of The Vampire Chronicles, Anne Rice, has tried Christianity and found it wanting.

"...following Christ does not mean following His followers. Christ is infinitely more important than Christianity and always will be, no matter what Christianity is, has been or might become.”

Indeed, Many of Rice's followers wondered when - or if - she would eventually come to reason. 

It is a testament of true spirituality that Anne Rice, the woman who almost singlehandedly rescued the occult/horror genre from the clutches of the Moral Majority, has decided that today's form of American Christianity is not for her. As the above quote points out, placement of Christ and His teachings ABOVE today's  Perkins-Warren-Engle version of Christianity is what really matters.

It's simply impossible for me to ‘belong’ to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group. For ten years, I've tried. I've failed. I'm an outsider. My conscience will allow nothing else.”

It's obvious that the recent gay-bashing and Obama-hating by the Christian Right helped Rice in her decision, but it's also interesting that the tipping point may have come with the ex-communication of Sister Margaret McBride, a nun and hospital administrator who had approved an abortion for a woman whose life was in danger. Within the last several years, the "anti's" kept piling up: anti-gay, anti-feminist, anti-science,even anti-Democrat. And while the Christian Right constantly commits to being "pro-life," their real stance - devoid of compassion regarding a woman's life - was beyond the pale. 

I met Anne Rice just after The Vampire Lestat came out (and before her S&M fantasies - The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty, etc. - were known). Back then she and her husband, the poet Stan Rice, lived in San Francisco's gay Castro District and  she frequented Walt Whitman Books. Once, we had the LONGEST telephone conversation about gay S&M versus straight S&M. I thought that hers was  the most voracious intellect about the physical as well as the metaphysical. The death of her first child (6-year-old Michelle) led to a deep depression that was quelled by writing her own version of the vampire saga, transmogrifying the conventional (hence, very immoral) evil of Dracula into the anti-hero Lestat.

The Christian Right never forgave her. 

Rice's concepts of good and evil transcended the black and white versions from the pulpit. Her characters paved the way for the series, Twilight, which  Ralph Reed's Christian Coalition is now trying to ban:

Right Wing Watch:

"We can let our voices be heard, and anytime you do that you have an effect one way or another," [Roberta] Combs says. "These Twilight books are very disturbing books for family values. Teen marriage is not the standard, but the part that is more troubling is the vampire. It's just not normal for young people to idolize a vampire."

This coming from a minion of Ralph Reed who once said: 

I do guerrilla warfare. I paint my face and travel at night. You don't know it's over until you're in a body bag.

No doubt people on the CR side are calling Rice an evil apostate who never really was a "Christian". Her remarks attacked the core of today's political Christianity, their frankness and lucidity telling American youth that whatever they hear from the pulpit may not be truly "Christian"  or even "humane." And she will be again relegated to the "evil" left.

Good to see you back in the battle, Anne. We need you. What you unleashed over 34 years ago will continue to bite Christianists not in the neck, but somewhere lower down.

The Disprince of Tides: Did Glenn Beck Almost Cause A Righteous Assassination?

 

For I was drench'd with ooze, and torn with briers, . . . And, all one rag, disprinced from head to heel. --Tennyson.

Yes, Tennyson's "disprinced" can certainly be taken as a metaphor for Glenn Beck in all his glory, so the pun was definitely intended by me. It's ironic, though, that Pat Conroy's novel, The Prince of Tides, also deals with dysfunctional people. The Sunday July 18th shoot-out on California's Interstate 580 showed just how much of an effect Glenn Beck has had on those who cannot cope with life.

Byron Williams of Groveland, CA was a convicted felon on parole who lived with his mother far from town. His mother, Janice, was a woman who kept a large stash of high-powered weapons because she thought  

(SF Weekly)that armed resistance against our government was inevitable -- but Williams allegedly made off with the stash because he felt that time was now.

Williams had been out of a job for two years since he was released from prison and felt ostracized from everyone - even by his own church. His mother repeatedly told the media that he had railed against

"the way Congress was railroading through all these left-wing agenda items." And that he would sometimes scream at the TV because he watched a lot of news programs.

After he left his mother's house, a scene on California's I-580 near Oakland unfolded as it would have in any B-movie: CHP officers noticed the white Toyota pickup speeding erratically down the highway, followed and signalled for the driver to pull over. Williams, armed with a small arsenal and wearing body armor, ,proceeded to shoot at the officers. Eighteen minutes, 60 rounds, ten officers, and three serious bullet wounds later (a total of six rounds were fired into the body armor), Williams was subdued and taken to the hospital where he was reported in stable condition. 

News10 ABC - Groveland, CA:

"He's ruined his life because now he is going back to prison and he's ruined mine because he is my only son," [Janice] Williams said.

The Righteous Assassination Defense

There were two targets that Byron Williams had in mind when he said that he wanted to "cause a revolution": the ACLU and the Tides Foundation. The ACLU, of course, is widely known and is one of the "demon-spawns" of the Right wingnuts everywhere. The Tides Foundation, however, is less notable and has not been focused upon by the mainstream media.

Except Glenn Beck.

wikipedia:

Several political observers have suggested that recent Fox News coverage of the Tides foundation may have provided some of the motive for the attacks. In particular, Glenn Beck mentioned the Tides Foundation in 29 separate episodes of his show, referring to it as "a socialist conspiracy" which was "assembling an army." Other pundits observed that, aside from holding similar political views, there was no evidence that the shooter was acting as a result of watching Beck's show.

But let's tally things up: Fox News targeted the Tides Foundation 31 times since 2009: twice by Sean Hannity and 29 times by Beck. No other news channel carried anything about the Tides Foundation. Even Beck said that "nobody knew about the Tides Foundation" until he started mentioning it on his programs - both TV and radio. 

It may be time for the righteous assassination defense to kick in.

"The deluge of 'Tiller is a Nazi, mass murderer, baby killer' verbiage by Mr. O'Reilly surely can drive one into a state of what we in the legal profession call 'righteous assassination.'" 

In a variation of the "twinky defense" (taken by Dan White, the San Francisco supervisor who shot and killed both Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone), "righteous assassination" is a defense that claims the defendant was so inundated with a particular ideology that he had very little will to halt his actions. The portrayal of Dr. Tiller by Bill O'Reilly as "Tiller the baby killer" made national headlines simply because Scott Roederer's defense team focused on that particular kind of media coverage and made it part of his motivation.

The Tides Foundation

Described by police as "heavily armed," and equipped with body armor, a rifle, a handgun, and a shotgun, Williams told relatives that he aimed to "start a revolution" by destroying the left-wing Tides Foundation, which he believed was "a socialist conspiracy."on.

A look at the Tides Foundation, doesn't reveal anything remotely sinister. It supports:

• Apollo Alliance
• Center for Genetics and Society
• Citizendium Foundation
• Traction
• Women, Food and Agriculture Network

The one which Beck has taken particular umbrage with is the Apollo Alliance which helps environmental efforts and was instrumental in passage of the economic recovery bill. Whatever links to socialism it might have would be a bit of a stretch to guess.

Then there's The Story of Stuff, a rather predictable polemic, intended to teach children where all the things that big business and advertising hawk (and we buy) wind up - polluting the earth. 

Libertarian and politically conservative critics have described the documentary as misleading and politically liberal; one Montana school board opposed the screening of the film in a biology classroom in a 4–3 vote. The subsequent public outcry against this decision led to a rewrite of the school board's policy and an award for the teacher who screened the film.

Glenn Beck, host of the Glenn Beck TV program, characterized the video as an "anti-capitalist tale that unfortunately has virtually no facts correct."

The video has been seen by over 7 million people in 228 countries since 2009. All the facts cited can be viewed here and the original annotated script (with references) can be read here. Yes, it can be seen as an anti-capitalist viewpoint, but it does explicitly get to the heart of the matter: what the average person can do to eliminate all that waste. 

So, from a school video about waste production and a program to that helps environmental groups, Glenn Beck has formed an immutable opinion that the Tides Foundation is part of a radical "socialist" agenda and is in a nasty conspiracy to take away our freedoms. How he came up with the statement that the Foundation is amassing an army, I suppose we'll never know.

from Media Matters:

[Beck] We've also seen it in the classroom. We've shown it to you night after night, kids are being taught to sing about how Obama is wonderful and how everyone is equal in his sight. Kids are being taught that capitalism is evil and flawed through "The Story of Stuff." It's a video made by the George Soros-funded Tides Foundation.

From TPM:

On his radio show on September 24, 2009, Beck elaborated: "The President sees these groups as the vehicle to achieve his goals, because the Founders didn't address redistribution of wealth in the Constitution." But Tides, Beck said, is "behind it all," and "while they do legitimate things, they are also involved in the nasty of the nastiest."

29 episodes denegrating the Tides Foundation. Virtually no mention of the Tides Foundation in other media. One unemployed man on parole living in a fairly remote area with his mother. A mother who keeps a small arsenal of guns and ammunition, believing in a future call-to-arms. The man puts on body armor and subsequently arms himself. The man's targets are the ACLU and the little-known Tides Foundation.

Looks like righteous assassination to me.

Danger! Right Wingnuts! Danger! Home Depot And The Homosexual Agenda Approaching! Danger!

Danger!

Beware Of It! 

Whatever It Is!

Even If We Made It Up!

Danger!

Without a doubt, Tony Perkins of Family Research Council envisions himself as the intelligent robot (with a kind of human mind/soul) of TV campdom's Lost In Space. His latest alarm must be the 1000th time he has described the institution of marriage as being in danger. The repeal of DOMA is, of course, "catastrophic" and is yet another instance of proof of the evil "homosexual Left" and the "homosexual agenda."

Are you going to surrender to the homosexual agenda?

The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is in danger. ...

The homosexual Left will be able to bring the weight of the federal government down on anyone who refuses to go along with counterfeit marriage and the rest of the homosexual "rights" campaign.

UPDATE: Perkins and Byran Fischer (American Family Association) have lambasted Home Depot for advancing the "agenda.":

Is it Home Depot or Homo Depot? After the month of sponsoring gay pride parades, no one's sure. Hello, I'm Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council in Washington, D.C. People who shop at Home Depot ought to drill down on where their money's going. In June, a big chunk was spent promoting homosexuality to children. At gay pride events in five states, the hardware chain hosted special kids' workshops.

So now the AMA has called for a boycott of Home Depot.  Ho Hum. Then again...

It all seems so ridiculous, but ... when you get to the heart of the matter, the actual danger  rests in the relentless drive of Christofascists such as Perkins in demonizing people: Tony Perkins and his band of merry malcontents become more like "The Four Horsemen of The Homosexual Agenda."

Perkins & Company build most of the Christian Rights' illusions on the "homosexual agenda", but what is it exactly? None of my friends know. I tried looking up the term, and, oddly enough, only came up with Right Wingnut references to it, but not anything substantial on its actual definition or origins. Frustrated, I finally went to that bastion of unbiased truth, Conservapedia.com:

The Homosexual Agenda, or homosexual ideology, consists of a set of beliefs and objectives designed to promote and even mandate acceptance and approval of homosexuality, and the strategies used to implement such. This article notes that the goals and means of this movement include indoctrinating students in public school, restricting the free speech of opposition, obtaining special treatment for homosexuals, distorting Biblical teaching and science, and interfering with freedom of association.

Among all the liberal belief systems, the homosexual ideology is the most self-centered or selfish. Liberals generally give much less than conservatives to charity, but gay charity work in particular is virtually non-existent. 

That reaction you've just felt from reading the last sentence is treatable with a prescription drug called Granisetron, but please see your doctor before using it.

To be fair, the writer of the definition was probably on another plane of consciousness during the Age of AIDS; while Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson were thanking God for the "gay plague" hundreds of thousands of gays were giving their money, their time, and their very lives to help the plague's victims. They even made quilts (see below). And ribbons. Yeah, the ones that got trendy and morphed into other colors for other diseases.

So now we know that (in the minds of Perkins et al) what drives the "homosexual agenda" is pure selfishness and that its basic tenets are to mandate acceptance, indoctrinate students in public school,s restrict free speech, obtain special treatment and "interfere with freedom of association" (whatever that means). The homosexual agenda means gays are out to recruit your children into a totally decadent lifestyle and if you say one word against it, you'll be thrown in jail. In other words, it means the end of the family unit. It means the end of the world. And the Four Horsemen of the Homosexual Agenda come as a warning of man's potential destruction.

But how was this "agenda" exposed? Well, don't strain the brain too much: it was documented in an oh-so-reliable-and-educated way, with a documentary produced by... The Family Research Council! But back then it was simply called "The Gay Agenda."

wikipedia:

In the US, the term "the gay agenda" was first used in public discourse in 1992 when the Family Research Council released a video series called The Gay Agenda as part of a pack of materials campaigning on homosexual issues and the "hidden gay agenda".

So the Family Research Council, armed with a video and a Bible, set out to destroy homosexuality - and homosexuals in the process. And the inspiration for violence might have come from the Book of Revelations. Hence the Four Horsemen.

The Four Horsemen of the Homosexual Agenda:  

Perkins (Fear), Cameron, (Deception), Nicolosi (Hypocrisy) and Lively (Malevolence).

So the homosexual agenda was fabricated  by the Family Research Council in 1992. The FRC also featured a rising star for their anti-gay agenda: Paul Cameron.

[Cameron] appeared in the video, wherein he asserted that 75 percent of gay men regularly ingest feces and that 70-78 percent have had a sexually transmitted disease.

He also taught that Alfred Kinsey's studies were skewed because he believed Kinsey to be gay. The gay agenda was stretched into a trilogy (of terror) and Paul Cameron made the rounds of Christian Right organizations and churches. It has survived because of the milking by people like Perkins and James Dobson (Focus on the Family). BTW: Cameron fully supports Uganda's "kill the gays bill" INCLUDING the part about capital punishment.

But Cameron is an honest psychological researcher, is he not? We-e-l-l-l-......no. He has been expelled or censured by: The American Psychological Association, The Canadian Psychological Association, The American Sociological Association and the Nebraska Psychological Association. (Of course, if you lived in Lincoln, NE, perhaps the most exciting thing going is getting kicked out of an association.) In addition, his group - the Family Research Institute - is considered a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

The next two men who made the term homosexual agenda equivalent to Satan, are Joseph Nicolosi and Scott Lively.

Nicolosi heads up the ex-gay movement with his National Association for Research and Therapy for Homosexuality. He espouses something called reparative therapy. If you feel that he thinks of himself as a repair man, you're not far from the truth. Unfortunately, his form of therapy has been debunked by even more associations than Cameron has been ejected from (a race?): the National Association of Social Workers, The American Psychological Association, The American Psychiatric Association, The American Counseling Association, the Royal College of Psychiatrists, and the American Academy of Pediatrics. Nicolosi's attitude towards homosexuality is positively toxic:

I remember Dr. Nicolosi telling me, in response to the question of whether one could easily contract HIV from semen, that if this were the case then gays would be “jerking off in hamburgers all over” to infect people.

For an interesting exchange of parental love meets the rude & the crude, click on  this segment of Dr. Phil. 

But of the four, Scott Lively is definitely the most extreme. He has been living almost exclusively on the fame of his first book, The Pink Swastika. Long out-of-print, it is now self-published and printed "on-demand." It's purchased by people who devour hate prose and who salivate at the thought of using it as a reference. Needless to say, historians have had nothing good to say about the book because it simply isn't true:

From SPLC:

In 1942, the death penalty was instituted for homosexuality. Offenders in the German military were routinely shot. "That wasn't a punishment," Himmler explained, "but simply the extinguishing of abnormal life. It had to be got rid of, just as we pull out weeds, throw them on a heap, and burn them."

Lively's organization, Abiding Truth Ministries, has a website describing Lively as "one of the most articulate opponents of the Homosexual Agenda in America."

No wonder Lively is among the people responsible for Uganda's "kill the gays bill". Here's part of the address at the (now) infamous conference in Kampala just before the proposed bill reared its ugly head:

You must be ready to stop this gay agenda. And don't think that fighting the gay movement is the solution-you will be fighting a losing battle because this movement has come to stop humanity. They have a clear vision, mission and strategies. The only way to defeat them is to compete with them. Their movement is 70 years old and that's why they don't care about you. They know you will die soon and they will replace you and take over the nation. They have decided to recruit the youth.

Besides Abiding Faith Ministries, Lively is also the founder of the virulent (and violent) Watchmen on the Walls, based in Riga, Latvia. Lately, Watchmen has captured attention due to a homophobic homicide of a man in Sacramento. 

BTW: Lively's cohort in homophobia is Reverend Ken Hutcherson:

“God hates effeminate men... If I was in a drugstore and some guy opened the door for me, I’d rip his arm off and beat him with the wet end.”

All men of God should be so macho.

Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council plays the other three "horsemen" like a puppeteer, using their rhetoric and skewed logic to demonize everyone who is gay or who  might indicate a slight leaning towards support of gay rights:

"It was her [Elana Kagan's] rabid pro-homosexual views that led her to restrict military recruitment on Harvard Law School's campus, and, as Solicitor General, to sabotage the defense of our federal marriage law. In both instances, she favored her personal ideology and political calculations over the law.

"Rabid pro-homosexual." The Four Horsemen of the Homosexual Agenda are definitely leaning towards a Ugandan sensibility by making it a sin (crime) to be supportive of the LGBT community.

There are more people who can articulate what the Homosexual Agenda means to them, but the Four Horsemen are at the top of the list as self-appointed ministers of righteousness. 

Additional Note:

I know that it seems I  take things cavalierly sometimes. The headline of this article, for example, was written to introduce a subject with levity. That was in the way of attracting attention, then leading you to the real cause of my concern. Please remember: these people are real, their actions are real and their motives are real. And even though some people dismiss them as "wingnuts," they must be monitored. Their influence is not to be underestimated. You've heard it said that their rhetoric can kill. That's not a silly hyperbole - it's a fact. The sad part is that they know it and just chalk it up to God's will. In other words, God gave them each a conscience, but they sacrificed them to God on an altar of self-righteousness. 

The Passion of the Mel

Focusing On Gibson's Other Phobias

Before there was his misogynous rant
Before there was his racism
Before there was his anti-Semitism

There was the El Pais interview:

"They take it up the a** ... this is only for taking a s***,” he said at the time. "With this look, who's going to think I'm gay? I don't lend myself to that type of confusion. Do I look like a homosexual? Do I talk like them? Do I move like them?"

Mel Gibson's outbursts have always attracted attention, but his most  recent rants have exploded exponentially: everything viral on the net was overshadowed by the news that filmdom's enfant terrible had eclipsed his last "lapse in judgment" -  drunken remarks blaming "The Jews" for everything. His (tacit) admission to domestic violence,  his use of the "N" word, his verbal abuse of the mother of his child  left most of his friends and colleagues with no reason to support him. People are asking each other, is this the end of his career?

However, my question is: how did we ever let it get this far? Yes, WE. The signs of an angry, bigoted and volatile personality were there long before his DUI in 2004. Looking back at all of the words and actions of animosity towards so many people, it's a wonder that his career both as an actor and as a director hadn't fizzled out twenty years ago. Put it this way: Mel Gibson was hired by the American public to entertain them. He did. But somewhere along the way, he opted to become an icon, a public personality as well as an actor. Maybe it was his stint at directing that made him realize that he could have power/control not only over a film, but over other people's lives. But in spite of his phobias, his errors, his crude and almost violent behavior, the American public still kept Mel Gibson on the pedestal/payroll - maybe because we can't stand seeing our icons walk away in disgrace.

 

Maybe it's time for America to fire Mel Gibson. It's not like he hasn't expected it. Again, before there were the misogynist and violent rants, there was the anti-Semitism. One of our own OpEdNews diarists has opined that perhaps the "Okasana tapes" are part of an elaborate  revenge/conspiracy of Hollywood's Jews as payback for his now infamous DUI rant. (I doubt it - my response). 

And before that...

There was the Anglophobia:

English critics saw through the machismo of Gibson's epic, Braveheart. In Colin MacArthur's book, Brigadoon, Braveheart and the Scots: Distortions of Scotland in Hollywood Cinema the author writes that 

"... a worrying aspect of the film is its appeal to "(neo-) fascist groups and the attendant psyche."

There was Sedevacantism. 

The word comes from the Latin, meaning "vacant seat', and although Gibson describes himself and his father as "traditional Catholics" his actions and views have leaned heavily towards this almost heretical view of the Catholic Church. Recently, Gibson had a full-scale church built on his land in Malibu, ensuring that the Catholic masses he attends will be said in Latin and that all of the old rites will be preserved. Sedavacantists disdain the "modernism" that took hold of Christianity after pope Pius X and rarely if, if ever, recognize any progress in the Church past Pius XII. Gibson's father, Hutton, is a writer and apologist of Sedavacantism.

There was "The Passion" 

 All the "miracles" surrounding Gibson's singular magnum opus, The Passion of the Christ, stood in contrast to Gibson's cavalier treatment of scriptures and scholarship regarding the Life of Christ and the the political climate of first century Roman Judea. Perhaps more than any other time, it was then Gibson enjoyed projecting his beliefs on the screen while cloaking them in sacred religion: his anti-Semitism and Sedavacantism became increasingly evident as time went on. He was on a mission to show Jesus the Christ as  Mel Gibson saw Him. The sources Gibson relied upon the most were also in question: two nuns, one, the stigmatic German nun Anne Catherine Emmerich (1774–1824), another a Spanish nun named María de Ágreda (1602–1665). Although he had several scholars on the set, their scholarship was always laid aside in deference to these two. To Mel, mysticism trumped scholarship. 

Mel probably thought of himself as something of a mystic in his translation of The Passion to the screen, else why would he forego scholarship and jumble the scriptures?

There was his alcoholism and bi-polar disorder.

Being bi-polar (a late diagnosis and an even later admission) is one thing, but being bi-polar and alcoholic is a recipe for disaster. Gibson himself admitted that he started drinking at the age of thirteen and that while making his early films, he put away six pints of ale for breakfast. (!). He also admitted to thoughts of suicide. The peaks and valleys  of being bi-polar took their toll on everyone around Gibson. 

Defenders of Gibson have cited his bi-polar condition as a possible trigger to his rants. However, doctors familiar with bi-polar disorder have not been quick to chime in.  Some have gone so far as to suggest a form of psychotic break. And if his violent tone had been caused by his disorder, Oksana would have not have been quite as defensive.  

And then there was ... Hutton Gibson.

Hutton Gibson's views as a Holocaust denier are well known. And because Hutton has a forceful personality like his son, it would have been almost impossible for the son not to have had the same ideas.

wikipedia;

Gibson is an outspoken critic of the post-Second Vatican Council Catholic Church and a proponent of various conspiracy theories. In a 2003 interview he questioned how the Nazis could have disposed of six million bodies during the HolocaustSeptember 11, 2001 attacks were perpetrated by remote control.[1] He has also been quoted as saying the Second Vatican Council was "a Masonic plot backed by the Jews".[2]

Perhaps one of the most troubling aspects of Mel Gibson is that there is also a humanitarian behind the manic, xenophobic facade: he and his former wife have been among the chief donors to Healing the Children, he has been instrumental in preserving Costa Rican rainforests and, along with pop icon, Sting, contributed to the fund for the cleaning and restoration of Michelangelo's David.

Gibson, however, has not become a lovable bigot, like some Archie Bunker in Hollywood. His social sins have been too grave.

***

A career that has spanned three decades, filling the public with power and respect has been badly stained by the personal ideologies and exploits of its star. And like it or not, as a celebrity who has willing revealed parts of his personal life, Mel Gibson has taken us through his journey and has exposed us to his some of his ugliest problems: a father who vehemently denies the Holocaust and adheres to the ideologies of Sedevacantism; a history of substance abuse; bi-polar disorder; homophobia; anti-Semitism; racism; misogyny. Click them off in the proper cadence and one might have Gibson's own Stations of the Cross. His "Passion" so to speak. But he has dragged us through these episodes, only sometimes asking for our forgiveness.

In the wake of the taped-rants scandal, Gibson's agent, The William Morris Agency has dropped him. But as his REAL employer, can the U.S. fire him? A kinder separation would be termed "retire."

But maybe that would be too kind.

Just a thought.

Riding The Train To Homophobia: Those Tickets Cost A Lot, Don't They, Tony?

Putting A Train In The Doghouse

Two hundred fifty thousand dollars - sounds like a lot, doesn't it? But not if you're in the travel business - or the bigot business.

Fifteen years ago, I was able to get some pretty remarkable local advertising for SF's AIDS Emergency Fund. The market value for transit posters and production of 4 black & white public service announcements: $350,000. In 1995 dollars. In a local market.

According to FRC's Tony Perkins, however, this amount is an absolute fortune of taxpayers' money going out to advance the "homosexual agenda."

FRC Action

If there was ever proof that the Obama Administration has gone off the rails, it's Amtrak. For the first time in the train service's history, Amtrak has decided to spend a quarter-million dollars recruiting homosexual passengers. As you may know, Amtrak isn't a private business. This is a government-run business, meaning that this $250,000 is taken directly from taxpayers' pockets. In a very real sense, this ad campaign is a federal endorsement of homosexual behavior -- one of the most serious public health threats in America.

Whoa! Tony! Do you mean that Amtrack is going to turn into one big rolling bathhouse? Hmmm.

I don't think so. Even though Perkins thinks that every LGBT person is one big horny STD, one tiny piece of outreach to get gay dollars is not going to cause an influx of drag queens sipping martinis in the Vista Dome lounge. Point of fact: Amtrak should be so lucky! I know plenty of wonderful girls who could liven up that dreary run to Topeka!

Of course, Amtrak is really not so innocent or naive: for years it has bucked the market trends in following Perkins' homophobic ideology, but to put it in a more Biblical perspective:, "They saw the Light!":
 

Openly Gay Marketing:

Says Darlene Abubakar, the director of national advertising for Amtrak, “Most all of the major airlines, hotels and others in the travel and tourism industry target the LGBT market segment. Amtrak ’s goal is to raise the level of awareness of the benefits of train travel and increase consideration and ridership amongst this segment.”

And $250k is small change to the FRC. Promoting "Family Values" and lobbying for same costs over $30 million per year. FRC employs over 200 people and has satellites in all fifty states. FRC is a lobbying organization and, unless I've missed something, politicians still don't give discounts.

And all of Lou Engle's trips to the "Dark Continent" add up (not to mention keeping him odor-free with Right Guard!).

Another ridiculous rant. Another ridiculous headline. Another ridiculous case of fear-mongering.

 

Two hundred fifty thousand dollars - sounds like a lot, doesn't it? But not if you're in the travel business - or the bigot business.

Fifteen years ago, I was able to get some pretty remarkable local advertising for SF's AIDS Emergency Fund. The market value for transit posters and production of 4 black & white public service announcements: $350,000. In 1995 dollars. In a local market.

According to FRC's Tony Perkins, however, this amount is an absolute fortune of taxpayers' money going out to advance the "homosexual agenda."

FRC Action

If there was ever proof that the Obama Administration has gone off the rails, it's Amtrak. For the first time in the train service's history, Amtrak has decided to spend a quarter-million dollars recruiting homosexual passengers. As you may know, Amtrak isn't a private business. This is a government-run business, meaning that this $250,000 is taken directly from taxpayers' pockets. In a very real sense, this ad campaign is a federal endorsement of homosexual behavior -- one of the most serious public health threats in America.

Whoa! Tony! Do you mean that Amtrack is going to turn into one big rolling bathhouse? Hmmm.

I don't think so. Even though Perkins thinks that every LGBT person is one big horny STD, one tiny piece of outreach to get gay dollars is not going to cause an influx of drag queens sipping martinis in the Vista Dome lounge. Point of fact: Amtrak should be so lucky! I know plenty of wonderful girls who could liven up that dreary run to Topeka!

Of course, Amtrak is really not so innocent or naive: for years it has bucked the market trends in following Perkins' homophobic ideology, but to put it in a more Biblical perspective:, "They saw the Light!":

Openly Gay Marketing:

Says Darlene Abubakar, the director of national advertising for Amtrak, "Most all of the major airlines, hotels and others in the travel and tourism industry target the LGBT market segment. Amtrak 's goal is to raise the level of awareness of the benefits of train travel and increase consideration and ridership amongst this segment."

And $250k is small change to the FRC. Promoting "Family Values" and lobbying for same costs over $20 million per year. FRC employs over 200 people and has satellites in all fifty states. FRC is a lobbying organization and, unless I've missed something, politicians still don't give discounts.

The Council's Finances

While I couldn't get the 2009 data on the FRC, I was able to come up with some for 2007: $12,758,000 in revenue. And what, pray tell, was it spent on?

1. Mailing out copies of its 425 (mostly) anti-gay "findings"

2. Printing and shipping out 105,000 "educational" materials.

3. Publishing it's monthly newsletter and mailing to 150,000 homes.

4. Producing its weekly radio show, Washington Weekly. It also produces a daily "Commentary" aired on three 300 stations.

In addition, the FRC now hosts the extremely expensive Values Voter Summit. The speakers' fees are eye-popping when you consider that right-wing icons like Mike Huckabee, Ann Coulter(geist), Sean Hannity and heavy-hitting intellectual Stephen Baldwin (actually D-list-actor-brother-of famous-actor).

And all of Lou Engle's trips to the "Dark Continent" add up (not to mention keeping him odor-free with Right Guard!).

wikipedia:

In their report Funding the Culture Wars, the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy^[18] lists the Family Research Council as one of the leading organizations funding the activities of the conservative movement. As a non-profit organization, FRC is completely dependent on donations from supporters.

Of course, the FRC screamed "Donations, Please!!"  while ragging the administration on a piddling $250k:

Yet Washington is targeting the demographically small homosexual population-probably because marketing surveys suggest it is also one of the richest. So let's be honest. This Administration is more interested in riding the gravy train than getting the culture back on track.

Another ridiculous rant. Another ridiculous headline. Another ridiculous case of fear-mongering.